‘This Is Us’: One Direction Fans Explain Why They’d Do Anything For Their Favorite Boy Band

Grace Chelius was wandering around 47th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue in New York looking for a good spot to see One Direction. It was 7 pm the night before the boy band was set to play the Today Show and hundreds of fans were already camped out on the street.Some brought sleeping bags, while others brought pizza. All of them though seemed to have homemade signs with clever messages like “I Traveled Myles For Styles” or “I Got An Infection Called One Direction.”

After driving all the way from Florida with five of her friends and two of their moms, Chelius arrived in New York City at three in the afternoon only to find out that tickets for the show had already been given out. Now the 13-year-old was stuck all the way at 42nd Street worrying that she wouldn’t be able to catch a glimpse of the guys.

“We’re pretty obsessed,” she explained. “We came all the way up here just to see them because concert tickets were too expensive.”

One Direction fans camp out near Rockefeller Plaza on August 22 in New York City to catch the boy band’s performance the next morning. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)

To some the near 17 hour drive would seem a little crazy, but not for a One Direction fan.

The boy band’s super fans–called Directioners–have gotten a reputation as one of the more dedicated fan groups of the Internet age. So dedicated in fact that after a documentary aired in the UK criticizing a certain sect of One Direction fans known as Larry Shippers–fans that would like to see members, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles get together–they pretended that these specific fans committed suicide, tweeting the hashtag #RIPLarryShippers with messages asking others to pray for those who had taken their own lives. The rumors first claimed that 14 people died, then 28, then later climbed to 42 people, but no deaths were ever confirmed in conjunction with the documentary.

“That’s overboard,” Chelius said in response to the suicide pact, which is now believed to be just a hoax. “I would ask for a photo, but I wouldn’t stalk them. And I definitely wouldn’t kill myself.”

Other fans have managed to pledge their love for the five guys–Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson–in far less fatal ways.